Story+2008-05-31+London,+England

“Lord bless our endeavors that we give our best for the fine citizens of London tonight…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Out in the Street”**

“Good evening! (crowd cheers) how we doing? (crowd cheers) hello!...hello up there!...that’s right…how we doing over there? (crowd cheers)(?) alright, what do we got down here tonight? Let’s check it out…gonna pick a few, let me see, maybe that one…maybe this one…let me see that one…it’s request time…we don’t know that one, give me that damn thing (chuckles)…ah, ok, give me that one …give me that thing, alright, what else we got?...that’s too hard (chuckles) this one (chuckles)…I know, I’ve been seeing that every night, bring that up, I’ll try it…send that one up…yeah, get, get, get up, get it up here…what else we got?...I see what we can do…that’s a good one but, uh, I don’t know if we know that one (chuckles) alright, that one, that, maybe that one tonight, bring that one up… well, see what else you got there…there’s a good one, we’ll get that one (chuckles)…yeah…yeah…alright…oh, here comes one (chuckles) yes…alright, let me put these in my file…alright, we’re gonna do this one, say “Hi, Rob,” “Thunder Road,” that, there we go, we’re gonna do this one for you, my friend, alright…there we go…we’ll send this one out to Danny, we appreciate, uh, all of your cards and letters and (crowd cheers) your condolences…here we go…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Sandy”**

“Oh yeah…two short stories about Danny…Danny was a, uh…like a kleptomaniac (chuckles) I used to, uh, play, I remember we played one night in a little club and I noticed that the jukebox was ajar and I saw Danny running out with these two big, huge jukebox speakers to put in his van…then I was coming down the hallway of the hotel and I see Danny with a screwdriver unscrewing the lights out of the elevator to put on his organ…and uh…Danny had this huge marijuana plant (laughs from the crowd) and he was driving it around in the front seat of his car and he parked his car in the tow-away zone…so the cops towed it away…and he came over and said “Bruce, you know, uh…they towed my car and it had this huge marijuana plant on the front seat…I’m gonna go down to the police and tell ‘em that it’s stolen” (laughs from the crowd) not a bad idea (laughs from the crowd) he goes down and reports the car stolen – straight into the slammer (chuckles)(laughs from the crowd and applause)… (…) So a few weeks later…my neighbor was a cop…and he was a gardener on the side…and there in amongst all the tomatoes and the lettuce was this huge marijuana plant…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Growin’ Up”**

“This man obviously has no job and no pride…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Downbound Train”**

“Here’s one we ain’t played…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “I’m on Fire”**

“Yeah…alright now…how we doing up there? (crowd cheers) that’s good…how we doing back there? (crowd cheers)…alright…this is a song called “Livin’ in the Future”…but it’s about what’s happening now, right now…how along with all the things that we love…about where we come from, over the past eight years we’ve had to add things like rendition and illegal wiretapping, the rolling-back of… civil liberties…no Habeas Corpus, the right to defend yourself against charges in court – these are all things that when I was a little kid, your parents always told you happened someplace far away and that they could never happen here…so this is a song about sleeping through things that could never happen…in your hometown that have happened…Max, help me tell the story…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Livin’ in the Future”**

“That’s right…are you ready for a house party? (crowd cheers) if you wanna have a party…the music has got to be raucous…oh, that’s right…I’ve got just one question I wanna ask you…come on, Max…(goes into the “Are you ready?”-call-and-response-routine)… because I’m feeling so sad and lonely, Clarence…sometimes I feel so…alienated…that’s when I need a little help…that’s when I need a little help…when I’m feeling sad and lonely…that’s when I need a little help…Max…that’s right…here’s my story…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Mary’s Place”**

“The smallest request out there…this is for (Dan?)…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Backstreets”**

“Thank you (crowd cheers)…oh, I wanna thank everybody for coming out to the shows the last two nights (crowd cheers) thank you, London (crowd cheers) we’ve been coming here a long time, I just wanna thank, thank all our, our British fans for the long-time support of our music (crowd cheers) and here’s to all the London girls! (crowd cheers) the London girls! (crowd cheers) the London girls! (crowd cheers) give me a thrill, I’m an old man, London girls! (crowd cheers)…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”**

“London girls! (crowd cheers)…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, after “Girls in Their Summer Clothes”**

“I’ve got one last story I gotta tell you…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”**

“We thank you London (crowd cheers) for two fabulous shows… have a great summer…God bless you… (…) Garry W. Tallent (crowd cheers) Little Steven (crowd cheers) Sister Soozie Tyrell (crowd cheers) the Mighty Max (crowd cheers) Professor Roy Bittan (crowd cheers) Charlie Giordano (crowd cheers) Nils Lofgren (crowd cheers) and the biggest man you’ve ever seen, Clarence “Big Man” Clemons (crowd cheers) London! (crowd cheers) London! (crowd cheers) London! (crowd cheers) London! (crowd cheers) you’ve just seen the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, hard-rocking, earth-shocking, booty-shaking, love-making, Viagra-taking, history-making, legendary (crowd: “E Street Band”)…”
 * 31.05.08 London, England, intro to “American Land”**

//Compiled by Johanna Pirttijärvi//